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Saturday, October 13, 2012

EFA to improve relations with ultras amid mounting clashes

The newly
elected head of the Egyptian Football Association Gamal Allam has vowed to
improve relations with the ultras amid mounting clashes between militant soccer
fans, President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and security forces.

Mr. Gallam,
the chairman of a soccer club in the upper Egyptian city of Luxor, made his vow
a day after thousands of militant, highly politicized, street battle-hardened
supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC marched on Mr. Morsi’s palace to
demand justice for 74 of their brethren killed in a brawl in Port Said in
February.

Ultras,
Egypt’s second largest civic group after the Muslim Brotherhood, were a day
later among critics of Mr. Morsi who clashed with the president’s supporters on
Cairo’s Tahrir Square. The clashes occurred in part as a result of anger at the
acquittal of 24 people on charges of having participated in the Battle of the
Camels during mass protests that last year toppled Egyptian president Hosni
Mubarak when the demonstrators were attacked by men on camels.

The clashes
occurred after the prosecutor in the case, Abdel Meguid, defied an order by Mr.
Morsi to relinquish his post and be dispatched to the Vatican as Egypt’s
ambassador.

Mr. Allam
has to come to an understanding with the ultras to achieve his goal of ensuring
that next week’s expected lifting of an eight-month old ban on professional
soccer imposed after the Port Said incident is not thwarted by the ultras who
see the brawl and the acquittal as closely linked.

The ultras
oppose the lifting of the ban as long as justice has not been served on the
perpetrators of the Port Said brawl, the worst incident in the history of
Egyptian sports, and have vowed to disrupt matches if they are restarted on
October 17 as planned.

Many in
Egypt believe that the brawl was instigated by the security forces and the
police, the most despised institutions in Egypt because of their central role
in Mr. Mubarak’s repression, in a bid to teach the ultras a lesson. The ultras
played a key role as the shock troops of last year’s rising, including in the
Battle of the Camels, and emerged as the most militant opponents of the
military which governed Egypt until Mr. Morsi’s election in July.

In seeking
an understanding with the ultras, Mr. Allam will be negotiating with a group
emboldened by a string of successes, starting with last year’s overthrow of Mr.
Mubarak. Ultras Ahlawy, the militant support group of Al Ahly, has in recent
months attacked the EFA’s headquarters on three occasions, stormed thye club’s
training ground and forced their way into media offices.

The actions
forced Mubarak era-soccer officials Hani Abou-Reida and former Al Ahly
goalkeeper Ahmed Shobeir to withdraw their candidacies in this month’s EFA
election. The ultras’ anti-corruption campaign further resulted this week in
the freezing of the assets of and a travel ban on Al Ahly chairman Hassan Hamdy
by the Illegal Gains Authority on suspicion that his wealth stemmed from
corrupt dealings. Egypt’s prosecutor also announced this week that he would be
investigating financial irregularities in the 2006 African Cup that was
organized by the EFA. Earlier, the ultras succeeded in getting the resumption
of professional soccer delayed by a month after the ban was originally to be
lifted on September 17.

Mr. Allam
is likely to find the going tough with the ultras despite the fact that a
number of their demands have been met. The two trickiest issues for the newly
elected president are the ultras’ demands that the police and the security be
deprived of their responsibility for security at matches and that fans be
allowed to attend the games because of the threat of violence. The ultras’
hands have been strengthened by an agreement reached this week in Tunisia with
the Tunisian Football Association to lift the ban on fans attending matches.

The two
issues go to the core of widespread dissatisfaction in Egypt that there has as
yet been no serious attempt at reform of the police and the security forces, the
backbone of the Mubarak regime, and that former Mubarak officials and officers
responsible for the deaths of protesters and fans have been treated leniently
by the courts.

More than
70 people, including nine mid-level security officials are on trial for the
Port Said incident in a slow-moving legal process. More senior officials who
would have instructed the police to stand aside in Suez Canal city’s main
stadium while the Al Ahly fans were attacked by rival fans and men believed to
be pro-Mubarak thugs.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile